3 In the same year, the temple of Juno Lacinia was uncovered. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, the censor, was erecting a temple to Equestrian Fortune, which he had vowed when prætor during the Celtiberian war, with anxious desire that it should not be surpassed by any other at Rome, either in size or magnificence. Thinking that he would add a very great ornament to this temple if the tiles were marble, he went to Bruttium, and stripped, off about the half of those belonging to the temple of the Lacinian Juno; for he computed that so many would be sufficient to cover the one he was building. Ships were in readiness to take on board the materials, while the allies were deterred by the authority of the censor from preventing the sacrilege. When the censor returned, the marble was landed and carried to the temple; but though he made no mention of the place from which it was brought, yet such an affair could not be concealed. Accordingly, considerable murmuring arose in the senate; from all sides of the house a demand was made that the consuls should lay that matter before the senate. When the censor, on being summoned, appeared in the senate-house, they all, both separately and in a body, inveighed against him with great asperity. They cried out that “he was not content with violating the most venerable temple in all that part of the world, a temple which neither Pyrrhus nor Hannibal had violated; but he had stripped it shamefully, and almost demolished it. Though created censor for the purpose of regulating men’s manners, and bound in duty, according to long-established rules, to enforce the repairing of edifices for public worship, and the keeping them in due order, he had nevertheless gone about through the cities of the allies, stripping the roofs of their sacred buildings, and even demolishing them. In a word, what might be deemed scandalous if practised on private houses, he committed against the temples of the immortal gods; and that he involved the Roman people in the guilt of impiety, building temples with the ruins of temples; as if the deities were not the same in all places, but that some should be decorated with the spoils of others.” When it was evident what were the sentiments of the senators, before their opinion was asked; when the question was put, they unanimously concurred in voting, that a contract should be entered into for carrying the tiles back to the temple, and that atonements should be offered to Juno. What regarded the atonements was carefully executed; the contractors made a report that they were obliged to leave the marble in the court of the temple, because no workman could be found who knew how to replace the same.
4 Of the prætors who set out for the provinces, Numerius Fabius, on his way to Hither Spain, died at Marseilles. Therefore when this was announced by envoys from Marseilles, the senate resolved that Publius Furius and Cneius Servilius, to whom successors had been sent, should cast lots to determine which of them should hold the government of Hither Spain, with a continuation of authority; and the lot determined, very fortunately, that Publius Furius, whose province it had formerly been, should continue. During the same year, on its appearing that large tracts of land in Gaul and Liguria, which had been taken in war, lay unoccupied, the senate passed a decree, that those lands should be distributed in single shares; and Aulus Titilius, city prætor, in pursuance of the said decree, appointed ten commissioners for that Purpose, namely, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, Caius Cassius, Titus Æbutius Carus, Caius Tremellius, Publius Cornelius Cethegus, Quintus and Lucius Appuleius, Marcus Cæcilius, Caius Salonius, and Caius Munatius. They apportioned ten acres to each Roman, and three to each Latin colonist. During the same time in which these transactions took place, ambassadors came to Rome from Ætolia with representations of the quarrels and dissensions subsisting in that country; likewise Thessalian ambassadors, announcing the transactions in Macedon.
5 Perseus, revolving in his mind the war, which had been resolved on during the life-time of his father, endeavoured, by sending embassies, and by promising a great deal more than he performed, to attach to himself not only the commonwealth of Greece, but also each particular state. However the feelings of the majority were inclined in his favour, and much better disposed towards him than Eumenes, although all the states of Greece, and most of the leading men, were under obligations to the latter for benefits and gifts; and although he so conducted himself in his sovereignty, that the cities which were under his dominion would not exchange their condition for that of any free state. On the contrary, there was a general report that Perseus, after his father’s death, had killed his wife with his own hand; that Apelles, formerly the agent of his treachery in the destruction of his brother, and on that account sought anxiously by Philip, for punishment, being in exile, was invited by him, after the death of his father, by great promises, to receive a guerdon for rendering so important services, and was secretly put to death. Although he had rendered himself infamous by many other murders, both of his own relations and of others, and possessed not one good quality to recommend him, yet the Grecian states in general gave him the preference to Eumenes who was so affectionate towards his relations, so just toward his subjects, and so liberal towards all mankind; either because they were so prejudiced by the fame and dignity of the Macedonian kings, as to despise a kingdom lately formed, or were led by a wish for a change in affairs, and wished him to be exposed to the arms of the Romans. The Ætolians were not the only people in a state of distraction, on account of the intolerable burden of their debts: the Thessalians were in the same situation; and the evil, acting by contagion like a pestilence, had spread into Perrhæbia also. As soon as it was known that the Thessalians were in arms, the senate sent Appius Claudius, as ambassador, to examine and adjust their affairs. He severely reprimanded the leaders of both parties; and after cancelling so much of the debts as had been accumulated by iniquitous usury, which he did with the consent of the greater part of the creditors themselves, he ordered the remaining just debts to be discharged by annual payments. Affairs in Perrhæbia were arranged in the same manner by the same Appius. In the mean time, Marcellus, at Delphi, gave a hearing to the disputes of the Ætolians, which they maintained with no less hostile acrimony than they had shown against each other in the heat of their civil war. Perceiving that they vied with each other in inconsiderate violence, he did not choose to make any determination, to lighten or aggravate the grievances of either party, but required of both alike to cease from hostilities, and, forgetting what was past, to put an end to their quarrels. The good faith of the mutual reconciliation was confirmed by a reciprocal exchange of hostages.
6 Corinth was agreed upon as the place where the hostages should be lodged. Marcellus crossed over from Delphi, and the Ætolian council, into Peloponnesus, where lie had summoned a diet of the Achæans. There, by the praises which he bestowed on that nation, for having resolutely maintained their old decree, which prohibited the admission of the Macedonian kings within the limits of their territories, he manifested the inveterate hatred of the Romans towards Perseus; and this hatred broke out into effect the sooner, in consequence of king Eumenes coming to Rome, and bringing with him a written statement of the preparations made for war, which he had drawn up, after a full inquiry into every particular. Five ambassadors were now sent to the king, in order to take a view of affairs in Macedon. The same were ordered to proceed to Alexandria to Ptolemy, to renew the treaty of friendship. These were Caius Valerius, Cneius Lutatius Cerco, Quintus Bæbius Sulca, Marcus Cornelius Mammula, and Marcus Cæcilius Denter. About the same time, came ambassadors from king Antiochus; and the principal of them, called Apollonius, being admitted to an audience of the senate, presented, on behalf of his king, many and reasonable apologies for paying the tribute later than the day appointed. “He now brought,” he said, “the whole of it, that the king might require no favour except the delay of time. He brought besides a present of gold vases, in weight five hundred pounds. Antiochus requested, that the treaty of alliance and amity, which had been made with his father, might be renewed with him; and that the Roman people might demand from him every service which might be required from a king who was a good and faithful ally: that he would never be remiss in the performance of any duty. Such had been the kindness of the senate towards him when he was at Rome, such the courtesy of the young men, that, among all ranks of men, he was treated as a sovereign, not as a hostage.” A gracious answer was returned to the ambassadors, and Aulus Atilius, city prætor, was ordered to renew with Antiochus the alliance formerly made with his father. The city quæstors received the tribute, and the censors the golden vases; and the business of placing them in whatever temples they should judge proper, was assigned to them. “One hundred thousand asses[81] were presented to the ambassador, and a house at the public cost was given him for his accommodation, and it was ordered that his expenses should be paid as long as he would remain in Italy. The ambassadors, who had been in Syria, represented him as standing in the highest degree of favour with the king, and a very warm friend to the Roman people.
7 The following were the events in the provinces during this year. Caius Cicereius, prætor in Corsica, fought the enemy in a pitched battle, in which seven thousand of the Corsicans were slain, and more than one thousand seven hundred taken. During the engagement the prætor vowed a temple to Juno Moneta. Peace was then granted to the Corsicans, on their petitioning for it, and a contribution was imposed, of two hundred thousand pounds’ weight of wax. Cicereius crossed over from Corsica, which he had reduced to subjection, to Sardinia. In Liguria, also, a battle was fought in the territory of Satiella, at the town of Carystas. A large army of Ligurians had assembled there, who, for some time after Marcus Popilius’ arrival, kept themselves within the walls; but afterwards, when they perceived that the Roman general would lay siege to the town, they marched out beyond the gates, and drew up in order of battle. The consul did not decline an engagement, as that was the object which he endeavoured to gain by threatening a siege. The fight was maintained for more than three hours, in such a manner, that the hope of victory leaned to neither side; but when the consul perceived that the Ligurian battalions no where gave ground, he ordered the cavalry to mount their horses, and charge in three places at once, with all possible violence. A great part of the horse broke through the middle of the enemy’s line, and made their way to the rear of the troops engaged, owing to which manœuvre, terror was struck into the Ligurians. They fled in different directions on all sides. Very few ran back into the town, because in that quarter, chiefly, the cavalry had thrown themselves in their way. So obstinate a contest swept off great numbers of the Ligurians, and many perished in the flight; ten thousand of them are said to have been killed, and more, than seven hundred taken, in various places; besides which, the victors brought off eighty-two of their military standards. Nor was the victory gained without loss of blood; above three thousand of the conquerors fell in the conflict; for as neither party gave way, the foremost on both sides were cut off.
8 When the Ligurians re-assembled in one body, after their scattered flight, they found that a much greater number of their countrymen were lost than left alive (for there were not above ten thousand men surviving); on which they surrendered. They did not stipulate for any terms, yet entertained hopes that the consul would not treat them with greater severity than former commanders. But he immediately took their arms from them, razed their town, and sold themselves and their effects; and he then sent a letter to the senate, relating the services which he had performed. When Aulus Atilius, the prætor, read this letter in the council, (for the other consul, Postumius, was absent, being employed in surveying the lands in Campania,) the proceeding appeared to the senate in a heinous light; “that the people of Satiella, who alone, of all the Ligurian nation, had not borne arms against the Romans, should be attacked, when not offering hostilities, and even after surrendering themselves in dependence on the protection of the Roman people, should be butchered and exterminated, that so many thousands of innocent persons suffering, who had implored the protection of the Roman people, established the worst possible precedent, calculated to deter any one from ever venturing to surrender to them; dragged as the were away into various parts of the country, and made slaves to those who were formerly the avowed enemies of Rome, though now reduced to quiet. That for these reasons the senate ordered, that the consul, Marcus Popilius, should reinstate the Ligurians in their liberty, repaying the purchase-money to the buyers, and should likewise use his best endeavours to recover and restore their effects. That arms should be made for them, as soon as possible; and that the consul should not depart from his province before he restored to their country the Ligurians that had surrendered. That victory derived its lustre from conquering the enemy in arms, not from cruelty to the vanquished.”
9 The consul exerted the same ferocious spirit in disobeying the senate, which he displayed towards the Ligurians. He immediately sent the legions into winter quarters at Pisæ, and, full of resentment against the senators and the prætor, went home to Rome; where, instantly assembling the senate in the temple of Bellona, he used many invectives against the prætor, who, “when he ought to have proposed to the senate that thanksgiving should be offered to the immortal gods, on account of the happy successes obtained by the Roman arms, had procured a decree of the senate against him, in favour of the enemy, by which he might transfer his victory to the Ligurians; and, though only a prætor, he had ordered the consul, in a manner, to be surrendered to them: he therefore gave notice, that he would sue to have him fined. From the senate he demanded, that they should order the decree of the senate passed against him to be cancelled; and that the thanksgiving, which they, though they were far from him, ought to have voted on the authority of his letter, sent from abroad, with an account of the success of the arms of the commonwealth, should, now when he was present, be voted; first, in consideration of the honour due to the immortal gods, and next, out of some kind of regard to himself.” Being censured to his face no less severely than in his absence, in the speeches of several of the senators, and having obtained neither request, he returned to his province. The other consul, Postumius, after spending the whole summer in surveying the lands, without even seeing his province, came home to Rome to hold the elections. He appointed Caius Popillius Lænas and Publius Ælius Ligus, consuls. Then Caius Licinius Crassus, Marcus Junius Pennus, Spurius Lucretius, Spurius Cluvius, Cneius Sicinius, and Caius Memmius, a second time, were elected prætors.
10 The lustrum was closed this year. The censors were Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Lucius Postumius Albinus, the latter of whom performed the ceremony. In this survey were rated two hundred and sixty-nine thousand and fifteen Roman citizens. The number was considerably less, because the consul Lucius Postumius, gave public orders, in assembly, that none of the Latin allies (who, according to the edict of the consul, Caius Claudius, ought to have gone home) should be surveyed at Rome, but all of them in their respective countries. Their censorship was conducted with perfect harmony and zeal for the public good. They disfranchised and degraded from their tribes every one whom they expelled the senate, or from whom they took away his horse; nor did either approve a person censured by the other. Fulvius, at this time, dedicated the temple of Equestrian Fortune, which he had vowed six years before, and when proconsul in Spain, during the battle with the Celtiberians; he also exhibited stage-plays, which lasted four days, in one of which the performance was in the circus. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, decemvir in religious matters, died this year, and Aulus Postumius Albinus was substituted in his room. Such great crowds of locusts were suddenly brought by the wind over the sea into Apulia, that they covered the country far and wide with their swarms. In order to remove this pest, so destructive to the fruits of the earth, Caius Sicinius, prætor elect, was sent in command, with a vast multitude of people assembled, to gather them up, and spent a considerable time in that business. The beginning of the year in which Caius Popillius and Publius Ælius were consuls, was employed in the disputes which had arisen in the last. The senators were desirous that the business respecting the Ligurians should be re-considered, and the decree renewed. Ælius, the consul, was willing to propose it, but Popillius warmly interceded for his brother, both with his colleague and the senate; and by giving notice, that if they would pass any vote on the subject he would would enter his protest, he deterred him from proceeding in the matter. The senate being hereby equally incensed against them, persisted the more obstinately in their intention; and when they took into consideration the distribution of the provinces, although Macedon was earnestly sought by the consuls, because a war with Perseus was daily expected, yet the Ligurians were assigned as the province of both. They declare that they would not vote Macedonia to them, unless the question were put on the affair of Marcus Popilius. The consuls afterwards demanded that they might be authorized to raise either new armies, or recruits to fill up the old; both demands were refused. To the prætors also, when seeking a reinforcement for Spain, a refusal is given: to Marcus Junius for Hither Spain, and to Spurius Lucretius for the Farther. Caius Licinius Crassus obtained by lot the city jurisdiction; Cneius Sicinius, the foreign; Caius Memmius, Sicily; and Spurius Cluvius, Sardinia. The consuls, enraged against the senate on account of this conduct, having proclaimed an early day for the Latin festival, declared openly that they would go away to their province, and would not transact any kind of business, except what belonged to their own government.
11 Valerius Antias writes, that, in this consulate, Attalus, brother to king Eumenes, came to Rome as ambassador, to lay heavy charges against Perseus, and give an account of his preparations for war. But the greater number of historians, and those deemed most worthy of credit, assert, that Eumenes came in person. Eumenes then, on his arrival, being received with every degree of respect which the Roman people judged suitable, not merely to his deserts, but also to their own former favours, bestowed on him in great abundance, was introduced to the senate. He said, that “The cause of his coming to Rome, besides his wish to visit those gods and men who had placed him in a situation beyond which he could not presume to form a wish, was, that he might in person forewarn the senate to counteract the designs of Perseus.” Then, beginning with the projects of Philip, he mentioned his murder of Demetrius, because that prince was averse to a war with Rome; that the Bastarnian nation was summoned from their homes, that, relying on their aid, he might pass over into Italy. While his thoughts were busied in plans of this sort, he was surprised by the approach of death, and left his kingdom to the person whom he knew to be, of all men, the bitterest foe to the Romans. “Perseus therefore,” said he, “having received this scheme of a war, as a legacy bequeathed by his father, and descending to him along with the crown, advances and improves it, as his primary object, by every means that he can devise. He is powerful, in respect of the number of his young men, since a long peace has produced a plentiful progeny; he is powerful in respect to the resources of his kingdom, and powerful, likewise, in respect to his age. And as, at his time of life, he possesses vigour of body, so his mind has been thoroughly trained, both in the theory and practice of war; for even from his childhood he became inured to it, in his father’s tent, not only in the wars against the neighbouring states, but also against the Romans, being employed by him in many and various expeditions. Already, since he has received the government, he has, by a wonderful train of prosperous events, accomplished many things which Philip, after using his best efforts, could never effect, either by force or artifice.
12 “There is added to his strength such a degree of influence as is usually acquired, in a great length of time, by many and important kindnesses. For, in the several states throughout Greece and Asia, all men revere the dignity of his character; nor do I perceive for what deserts, for what generosity, such uncommon respect is paid him; neither can I with certainty say whether it occurs through some good fortune attending him, or whether, what I mention with reluctance a general dislike to the Romans attaches men to his interest. Even among sovereign princes he is great by his influence. He married the daughter of Seleucus, a match which he did not solicit, but to which he was solicited by her friends; and he gave his sister in marriage to Prusias, in compliance with his earnest prayers and entreaties. Both these marriages were solemnized amidst congratulations and presents from innumerable embassies, and were escorted by the most renowned nations, acting as bridal attendants. The Bœotians could never be brought, by all the intrigues of Philip, to sign a treaty of friendship with him; but now, a treaty with Perseus is engraved at three different places, at Thebes, in Delos, in the most venerable and celebrated temple, and at Delphi. Then, in the diet of Achaia, (only that the proceeding was quashed by a few persons, threatening them with the displeasure of the Roman government,) the business was nearly effected of allowing him admission into Achaia. But, as to the honours formerly paid to myself, (whose kindness to that nation have been such, that it is hard to say whether my public or private benefactions were the greater,) they have been lost, partly through neglect, and partly by hostile means Who does not know that the Ætolians, lately, on occasion of their intestine broils, sought protection, not from the Romans, but from Perseus? For, while he is upheld by these alliances and friendships, he has at home such preparations of every requisite for war, that he wants nothing from abroad. He has thirty thousand foot and five thousand horse, and is laying up a store of corn for ten years, so that he can be independent of his own territory or that of his enemies with respect to provisions. He has amassed money to such an amount, as to have in readiness the pay of ten thousand mercenary soldiers, besides the Macedonian troops, for the same number of years, as well as the annual revenue accruing from the royal mines. He has stored up arms for three times that number of men; and has Thrace under subjection, from which, as a never-failing spring, he can draw supplies of young men if ever Macedon should become exhausted.”